Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Too many of us believe in a magical being called ‘passion’. “If only I could find my passion”, we cry. “Finding my passion would make me happy”.

Well, passion is real, and very powerful. But almost everything people believe about finding it is wrong.

Rule 1: Passion comes from success

All of our emotions exist for good reason. We feel hunger to ensure we don’t starve. We feel full to ensure we don’t burst. And we feel passion to ensure we concentrate our efforts on things that reward us the most.

Imagine you start a dance class. You find it easy. You realise you’re getting better than others, and fast. That rising excitement you feel is your passion, and that passion makes you come back for more, improving your skills, and compounding your strengths.

The enemy of passion is frustration. If you constantly struggle with something, you’ll never become passionate about it. You learn to avoid it entirely, guaranteeing you never improve.

Most people get this backwards. They think we discover our passion, and that makes us good at something. It’s actually finding that you’re good which comes first. Passion comes from success.

Rule 2: Childhood is where passion goes to die

In theory childhood provides a great opportunity to try a bit of everything, find your talents, and with them, your passions.

But think for a moment how badly the system is stacked against you. Say school lets you try 20 subjects, ranking you against thousands of other children. Those aren’t good odds. Most kids are, by definition, around average. And it doesn’t matter how much we improve education, because people need to feel exceptional to feel passionate, and improving education simply moves up the average.

Say you’re one of the lucky ones, and you’re top of your junior math class. The education system will keep rising your difficulty until you find a level – like college – where you’re not exceptional anymore. Even if you actually are objectively pretty great, once you feel merely average, you’ll find your passion slipping.

And that’s if you’re lucky. What if your passion was for art? From an early age that passion is compromised by its social consequences. “It’s hard to make a living from painting” say your parents. “Your cousin is doing so well from engineering. Why can’t you be more like him?” And so you put your passions to one side, and let them wither.

In a population of billions, it’s obvious that not everyone can be unusually great at a handful of academic subjects. What if your true skills are in speechwriting, or creative dance, or making YouTube commentaries of videogames? None of those things are even on the syllabus.

And so most people grow up without much passion for anything.

Rule 3: Passion can be created

It may help to know that the most successful people in life generally didn’t pick their passion off a shelf.

In fact, many of the world’s most successful people dropped out of education entirely. Not because they were stupid – but because they found other areas where they were more skilled that education did not recognise.

They created their own passions.

Only a tiny fraction of people can expect to excel in the narrow subjects that childhood primes us for. And competition in that space is basically ‘everybody in the world who went to school’, which doesn’t help our chances.

But if you look outside of that space, you’ll find less competition, and more options. And this is how you tip the odds of finding a passion in your favour.

Option 1: Create something

When you create something new, you’re inventing something to be passionate about.

Now it’s important to note that this doesn’t sidestep Rule #1: passion comes from success. So if your new Twitter account only has 5 followers after a year, you probably won’t be too passionate about it. If you had 5 million, you’d have quit your job. You must find success to fuel your passion.

But at least you’ve drastically improved your odds, because your competition is so limited. Only a handful of people will even dare to try something new. And you can be one of them, just by starting.

You see this pattern throughout history’s greats. A student called Mark was never going to be the world’s greatest programmer. But he started building cool websites, and he found he was unusually good at this because even better programmers rarely dared to try. It just so happens one of his little experiments became Facebook.

Option 2: Lead a new trend

The older and more established an area is, the harder it will be to compete in. Millions have got there before you, and the lower your odds of standing out, the lower your odds of being passionate.

But there’s always a new frontier being born, a place where everyone else is hopelessly incapable, and even modest skills can be impressive.

Say you were a teenager who started making YouTube videos, back in 2005. You grow a modest following, and your growing success excites you. By the time the ‘grown up’ world had realised YouTube was Kind-Of-A-Big-Deal with 4 billion views every single day, you’ve become a passionate master of an invaluable new craft.

That isn’t fantasy. There are mountains of hugely successful YouTubers, and most started in the same way: before everybody else. It’s the same for the first bloggers, rappers, and videogame designers.

If you can find something new that’s growing fast, and get skilled at it early, you’ll find it disproportionately easy to excel because of the lack of competition. And that’s your new passion right there.

Option 3: Fuse mediocrity

One limitation of education is it’s designed to narrow your skills. Education generally finds your One Best Thing, and pushes that thing as far as you can stand it:

The problem is most of us, by definition, can’t be the best in any one area. But we can be exceptional in our combinations.

Say you’re an average artist, with a decent sense of humour. You won’t have much hope with an art degree, and you can’t study ‘humour’ as a subject. But you could be an awesome cartoonist.

Or take an average business student, with some programming ability, and decent sales skills. That person is surprisingly well suited to become the boss of others who were better than them in any one of those areas.

The most successful people are almost never defined by a single skill. They are a fusion of skills, often not even exceptional skills, but they’ve made their fusion exceptional. Steve Jobs was not the world’s greatest engineer, salesperson, designer or businessman. But he was uniquely good enough at all of these things, and wove them together into something far greater.

This is the final route you have to finding your passion: combine skills into something more valuable. Remember, passion comes from success. If a new combination gets you better results, that could be your passion right there.

Why passion matters

Passion is attractive. As passion comes from believing you’re unusually good at something, being passionate is a very sincere way of saying, “by the way, I’m awesome”.

Passion will persuade people to follow you. It will persuade people to believe in you. But most importantly, passion will persuade yourself. Passion is an emotion specifically intended to make you go crazy and work your ass off at something because your brain believes it could rock your world. That, like love, is a feeling worth fighting for.

And like love, what we’re passionate about is too important to leave to the mercy of fate. If you haven’t found your passion yet, create new things, lead new trends, and fuse new combinations. But don’t ever stop looking.

Hey. I’m Brian, the VP of Growth at Sidekick. You know what’s harder than growing a company?

Determining what the hell to focus on.

For entrepreneurs, every day is different. One day I’ll be signing partnership agreements. The next day I’m interviewing job applicants. And the following day I’m pitching investors. All the while, praying my brain doesn’t deactivate after last night’s three hours of sleep.

Yet if I can count on one thing, remaining steady, despite the day … is that there will be distractions.

“Hey Brian, can you send me that partnership agreement?”

“Hello Brian, will you shoot over this month’s revenue report?”

“Umm … Brian … the server just crashed. What should we do?”

Constantly distracted by external requests (let alone internal thoughts or ideas, which can be the most distracting), it’s easy to forget long-term goals. However, there’s a systematic approach I use to stay focused.

A template that forces me to consciously think about a task’s importance before doing it.

It functions in three easy steps.

Step 1: Copy the Blank Time Management Matrix Template.

First, make a copy of the Blank Time Management Matrix Template by clicking File > Make a Copy. You can use this blank template to follow along, inserting your own tasks, as I quickly explain how I use the template to prioritize.

However, you must be signed into your Google account in order to make a copy!

Step 2: Write new task, label by quadrant.

Step two is simple. On the sheet ‘My To-Do List’, write a new task in Column A, then label the task by priority (1, 2, 3, or 4) in Column B.

It will now magically appear in the sheet ‘My Prioritized To-Do List’, automaticallyorganized for you.

My personal G.P.S. system is the ultimate roadmap (pun intended) for focusing on important tasks, both professionally and personally. It helps me stay focused, but more functionally, it’s now easier to label tasks into the appropriate quadrant in Column B.

I encourage you to write down your own G.P.S. system, which is available in the blank template:

For a full glimpse into my to-do list, an example of a completed time management matrix template, access it here.

Not only will you gain access to all my to-do list tasks, but I’ll explain the logic behind why I labeled tasks into that specific quadrant.

For a preview, here are a few Q1 tasks and the logic behind why I label them as Q1.

Q1: Important/Urgent Tasks (Do Now)

Why I labeled Q1

Prepare Q1 growth metric results for team meeting tonight

Leading our team and hitting 500k WAU is agoal. Urgent because it’s due tonight.

Review persona research questions before customer interviews today

Customer analysis is a specialty. Urgent because interviews are today.

Step 3: Complete task, then delete it.

Finally, once a task is completed, delete the task on the ‘My To-Do List’ sheet. Do not delete tasks on the ‘My Prioritized To-Do List’ sheet. Doing so will erase the formula used to visually sort the tasks.

That’s it. It’s incredibly simple, yet surprisingly powerful.

Simply write in your new task, label it by quadrant, then delete the task once you’re finished. However, you may be asking, “What if I don’t have personal assistants?”

Great news. I’m covering that exact subject in a few days.

I’ll explain how I find the right personal assistant, including the exact websites to use and precisely how much it costs. Yes, even solo-entrepreneurs will benefit from this information.

In addition, I’ll explain how I save time using automated email templates to outsource tasks, which you can easily copy and paste. Everything will be available, completely free, to all email subscribers (subscribe below).

Until then, I’m happy to answer specific questions about how to use the time management matrix template in the comments.

We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world.

TED is a circuit of highly popular conferences that present “Ideas Worth Spreading” – which have quickly grown to become some of the most well known conferences around the world. TED has attracted presenters such as Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Larry Page, and a large handful of Nobel Prize Winners.

Many of the presentations, known as TED Talks, present ideas that are particularly valuable to entrepreneurs. I put together a collection of TED Talks that all entrepreneurs, including ecommerce store owners, should find interesting and worthwhile. Since a lot of the presenters below have written books, I have included a link to purchase. All of the money earned from Amazon’s affiliate program will go to Acumen Fund, a non-profit venture that supports entrepreneurs in developing countries.

Let us know which TED Talk you think should have made the list in the comments.

Rory Sutherland: Life Lessons from an Ad Man

Entrepreneurs can learn a lot by studying behavioral economics. Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman ofOgilvy & Mather (one of the biggest marketing/advertising agencies in the world), makes the assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider “real” value. The idea that intangible value can strongly influence opinion (and purchase decision) is evidenced in Sutherland’s humorous and deeply insightful presentation that every entrepreneur – certainly every marketer – should watch.

Simon Sinek: How Great Leaders Inspire Action

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it. Simon Sinek is an author, motivational speaker, and strategic communications professor at Columbia University. Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership that starts with his famous “golden circle of motivation” and the question “Why?”

Dan Ariely: Are we in Control of our own Decisions?

The decisions we make are not only inevitable, but they’re also extremely predictable. Dan Ariely is a behavioural economist, professor, and author. He uses his own shocking research findings to show how we’re not as rational as we think when we make decisions.

If you like Ariely’s TED talk, also check out his podcast “Arming The Donkeys” and his books:

Seth Godin: How to get your Ideas to Spread

Be remarkable. Safe is risky. Being very good is one of the worst things you can do. Everyone has heard the expression “The best thing since sliced bread” but did you know that for 15 years after sliced bread was invented it wasn’t popular? The success of sliced bread, like the success of anything, was less about the product and more about whether or not you could get your idea to spread or not.

Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce

The food industry used to determine what people want to eat by asking them – as you may have seen in the focus groups portrayed on Mad Men. Fact is, people don’t know what they want. Ask people what kind of coffee they like and they’ll say a “dark, rich, hearty roast” – in fact, most people actually want milky weak coffee.

Malcolm Gladwell, author, journalist, thinker, gets inside the food industry’s pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce, and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.

Tim Harford: Trial, Error, and the God Complex

Unilever (they own 400 brands, including: Dove, Lipton, Becel, and more) hired some of the most brilliant engineers in the world to design the perfect nozzle to squirt out laundry detergent. No one could get it right. So they used trial and error instead. They created ten random variations of a nozzle, and kept the one that worked best. Then they created ten variations on that one, and kept the one that worked best, and so on. After 45 generations Unilever developed a perfect laundry detergent nozzle with absolutely no idea why it works.

In this TED talk, economics writer Tim Harford studies complex systems and finds a surprising link among the successful ones: they were built through trial and error. He asks entrepreneurs to embrace our randomness and start making better mistakes. Check out Tim Harford’s books “Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure” and “The Undercover Economist.”

Cameron Herold: Let’s Raise Kids to be Entrepreneurs

Cameron Herold thinks weekly allowances teach kids the wrong habits – by nature, they teach kids to expect a regular paycheque, something to which entrepreneurs usually don’t get. Herold’s two kids don’t get an allowance. He’s taught them to walk around the yard looking for stuff that needs to get done, then they negotiate a price. In his TED Talk above, Herold makes the case for a new type of parenting and education that helps would-be entrepreneurs flourish.

Jason Fried: Why Work Doesn’t Happen at Work

The office isn’t a good place to work, meetings are toxic, and ASAP is poison. In Jason Fried’s TED Talk, he lays out the problems with “work” and offers three suggestions to fix a broken office.

Jason Fried is the co-founder and president of 37signals, a company that builds web-based productivity tools. Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson wrote the book REWORK, which is about new ways to conceptualize working and creating.

Richard St. John: 8 Secrets of Success

Why do people succeed? Is it because they are smart? Or are they just lucky? The answer is neither. Success Analyst, speaker, and author Richard St. John asked over 500 extraordinarily successful people what helped them succeed. He analyzed their answers and discovered eight traits successful people have in common. His book “The 8 Traits Successful People Have in Common: 8 to Be Great” goes into further detail on each of the traits that are briefly outlined in his TED Talk above.

I know your pain. You’re looking for free images for your website. You’ve looked far and wide for gorgeous, free images to use online, but keep running into cheesy pictures of people laughing at their salad.

The good news is there are ton of different free and paid images for commercial use available online if you just know where to look.

In this post, I’ve compiled the ultimate list of resources to source free images for your website. Whether you want free stock images for your blog, to download, or for commercial use – you’ll find them here.

Take a look, and enjoy!

Note: While these may be listed as free, it’s best to double check to ensure what the licensing is for each resource. Some may require approval for commercial use, while others may be totally free to download and use.

Conclusion

Now that we’ve taken a look at the best places online to get stock images free, it’s up to you to take advantage of them. Whether you’re using them for a blog, website, presentation or more – you’re all set.

Let us know in the comments if you found any other stock photography resources online!

About The Author

Tucker Schreiber is an ecommerce entrepreneur and Content Marketer at Shopify. Get more from Tucker on Twitter.

But what if you’re not an amazing writer? And what if you don’t know what to blog about?

Don’t worry. The first blog post is always the hardest. That’s why we collected examples of different kinds of posts for your inspiration.

Take a look, and consider writing to tell your story, announce a sale, or give a guide to your products today.

Make a List of Influencers to Follow

Here’s an easy way to create good content – and offers the potential to be widely-shared:

Make a list of the top 25 blogs, Twitter accounts, or even Tumblrs, for someone interested in your industry to follow. Compile that list, write a few sentences about why you included each blog or Twitter account, publish it, and send it to the people you feature. If you do it tastefully, there’s a good chance that they’ll share the post with their audiences. That will get you lots of traffic – in addition to improving your SEO.

Here’s an example of a post that compiles a list of blogs to follow, from Coffee Cup News. And here’s an excerpt:

Pure Coffee Blog – Bill reviews coffee and tea shops as well as coffee and tea at home.

I Need Coffee – A wealth of coffee information started by Michael Allen Smith in 1999.

Answer Questions About Your Industry

Some of the most successful pieces of content marketing ever comes via Marcus Sheridan of River Pools and Spas.

River Pools and Spas installs fiberglass pools, the cost of which is not always transparent. Sheridan decided to write blog posts about every aspect of fiberglass pools.

Sheridan’s posts were so good that the New York Times profiled him with a headline: “A Revolutionary Marketing Strategy: Answer Customers’ Questions.”

His blog posts often rank on the first page of Google for their search terms. And that’s driven both traffic and sales.

Here’s an example of a very informative post in that ranks well and answers customer questions, from River Pools and Spas. Take a look at this excerpt:

As you can see, there are many options available, and when someone receives a quote from our company, we thoroughly examine each option as to educate the homeowner on the option’s benefits as to identify its overall importance to the success of the project.

When an inquiry is made as to how much our pools cost, extent of installation is also a key factor. What I mean by this is that as a company, we have four different packages we offer our customers. Unlike most pool companies, we will do as much or as little as our customers would have us do. This flexibility leads to less stress and more savings for the customer. The packages are as follows, with their corresponding price ranges:

1. Self Install…

Profile Your Team

Your team is made up of interesting people. Why not feature their stories?

There’s a variety of things that you can do. You can write up a short bio of them that includes their interests and where they’ve been. This can also take the format of a Q&A, when you spend 15 minutes chatting with someone on your team and then write up the questions and their responses.

This is an especially easy way to generate some good content. Most importantly, it gives your customers a sense of who they’re dealing with. When they purchase a product from your store, they know that they’re buying from real people with real passions.

Here’s an example of a wonderful profile of a bookbinder at DODOcase. DODOcase is proud of being based in San Francisco, and notice that one of its questions is about why the employee loves the city.

WHAT MOST DO YOU LOVE ABOUT SF?

I moved here almost 20 years ago. I’ve seen a couple of tech booms, a couple of busts, and I raised my son here. What do I most love about San Francisco? I most love that I met my wife here.

WHAT’S SOMETHING WE DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU?

If you know me, you know I brew my own line of craft beers. If you haven’t tried them then you don’t know what you’re missing. My wife is an amazing chef. When we have people over, it’s never necessary for our guests to bring their own beer. Actually, it’s not really allowed.

Give a Sneak Peek of New Products (and Ask for Feedback)

There’s two ways that this tactic can be valuable:

First, it generates excitement from your customers for a new product. If they like what you do and are loyal towards your brand, they’ll feel especially good that they get to see a new thing first.

Second, it has the potential to increase engagement. If you manufacture your products, consider floating a prototype for people to see; they may offer valuable input on what can be improved. And if you don’t manufacture your own products, ask your readers which of the options you can stock most appeals to them. Let them anticipate something that they’ll buy from you.

Here’s an example of a company putting prototypes up on its blog while asking for feedback, via Catan Boards. There are two photos of the prototype, and the commenters are quite excited about it. And here’s an excerpt.

Catan Bag prototype in the works

(photo1)

(photo2)

What do you guys think? It’s still pretty rough, but we’re getting close to a finished pre-production prototype. Let us know your thoughts here…

Make a Tutorial for Your Products

Everybody wins when your customers know how to use your products.

Not every product needs an in-depth tutorial on how it’s used. But for certain products this can be a big help.

Does your product have cool, non-obvious uses? Is it best enjoyed in a certain condition? Is there something that the customer should do to make the most of it? By all means point all of these things out. Potential customers may see one more way to use your product and existing customers may be pleased to discover a new way to use it.

Here’s an example of a blog post that offers ideas for getting the most out of a hearing aid, from Audicus. Much of it is non-obvious and can improve the experience of customers. Here’s a brief excerpt.

Auditory Training

Auditory training can help you discern soft speech in noisy environments such as parties and restaurants. Listening And Communication Enhancement (LACE) Auditory Training programs can increase speech comprehension by as much as 40% and offer multiple listening exercises.

Audio Games

Recent studies have shown that audio games, when supplemented with specialized hearing aids such as Visually Guided Hearing Aids, can actually improve your ability to detect soft speech. Audiogames.net offers hundreds of free games, many of which rely on sound alone.

Announce a Sale

This one’s pretty obvious. When you have a big sale coming up, announce it on your blog. It’ll give people something to link to.

Use the space to talk about the products you have on sale, and if it’s applicable, why these products are right for the occasion. (It may be, for example, the perfect present for Mother’s Day.) And if you’re able to design something, put together a graphic.

Here’s an example of a blog post that announces a sale in the form of a great graphic, via the Cult Crew. Notice that the red, white, and blue theme goes perfectly with the Fourth of July.

Run a Contest

Running a contest is similar to announcing a sale. They’re both effective and attractive ways to get more attention for your store. Just make sure that you’re not making the common mistakes with giveaways and contests.

You can have all sorts of giveaways, of your products, of gift cards, or even special experiences like a visit to your store. And entering the contest can take a variety of forms. The easiest way is to submit a comment at the end of the post. You can also ask people to tweet about your store or share it on another social media platform.

Set up Gleam to make the most out of your contest. Gleam offers one-click entry, built-in viral sharing, and multiple ways of picking new winners.

Here’s an example of an effective contest run on the blog of Kigurumi, which sells animal onesies. It asks entrants to submit by posting a picture of themselves in their onesies on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or email, for a music festival pass the following year. Here’s how Kigurumi introduces it.

Headed to a music festival or concert this summer? Snap a photo in your kigurumi onesie and enter this contest (older photos OK too)! We’re giving away music festival passes and kigurumi onesies this summer! Simply submit photos of you and your friends in our kigurumi onesies from Wednesday July 3rd until Saturday August 31st, 2013 and you’ll qualify to win a prize pack!

Write About an Event You Participated In

If you help put on an event then you should definitely write about it. But you can also write about something that you don’t own, like your thoughts on a conference.

Write up your impressions and thoughts about a conference or meetup you went to. It shows that you’re paying attention to where your industry is going and people will appreciate the insights. Make sure to snap a few pictures and post them up too.

Here’s an example of a blog post that shares actionable tips for how to succeed at a trade show, via Sycamore Street Press. There are lots of photos among the tips and the recollections of how the event went. Here’s how the piece starts:

This was Sycamore Street Press’s fifth time showing at the National Stationery Show, and the first time I was completely happy with the way our booth turned out. It was also our best show yet as far as sales and press coverage goes, and I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

Here are my top 5 tips for creating a successful National Stationery Show booth, if you are interested…

Tell the History of Your Company

Being an entrepreneur means something special. Few people think of it, and even fewer people act on it.

So what’s your founding story?

Share the story of why you decided to become an entrepreneur. Was it driven by an event? Was it the result of a special trip? Were you struck by inspiration of some sort? Tell the story and connect better with your customers.

Here’s an example of a post that tells the founding story of Pura Vida Bracelets. The business was started when two friends visited Costa Rica, and is now successful enough to have been featured on Good Morning America and Sports Illustrated. Here’s how the post starts.

A five week college graduation trip to Costa Rica turned into a business venture for two Southern California friends Griffin Thall and Paul Goodman. Between the beautiful sunsets and the rolling breakers, it wasn’t long before these two friends began to deeply appreciate and fall in love with the simple Pura Vida lifestyle and culture of the people they encountered. This is how it all began…

Make a Video: Product Tutorial

Okay, we don’t want to give the impression that content marketing is only blogging. It can be making videos, writing emails, and other kinds of content-generation too.

Sometimes you just can’t write about how to use a product. You have to show, not tell. Then it’s time to post a video on Youtube (or some other platform).

Besides, video marketing is effective. By one estimate, consumers are 64% more likely to purchase a product after watching a product video.

Shoot a product tutorial to introduce your product, its benefits, and how it can best be used.

Here’s an example of a video that very informatively discusses how to fit a road bike, via Performance Bicycle.

Make a Video: How Your Product Is Made

Our last suggestion for an easy piece of content: Make a video of how your product is made.

Do you have a very interesting manufacturing process? Does it require special tools and equipment? Is the process fun to look at? Shoot a video of its production.

Here’s an example of a very cool video via Doucette and Wolfe Furniture of a Windsor Chair leg being made.

Conclusion

You know your business well, and there are lots of opportunities to create good content by telling people about cool things in your industry. Write a blog post, shoot a video, or generate some other type of content today to tell your story and improve SEO.

About The Author

Dan Wang is a Shopify Content Specialist studying economics and philosophy at the University of Rochester. Talk to Dan on Twitter.

For the 22-year old, this is a boring yet tried-and-true investment method that will make you rich over time, richer than most rappers who’ll blow their money on cocaine and other stupid shit. Allow me to start with a simple Excel illustration, entitled “How to Make $10 Million Dollars”:

*For illustration purposes only, and like every other method of wealth creation, is subject to tax and inflation. Simply stated (and assuming a decent job), 20% savings smartly invested at a 10% interest rate will get you to the $10MM mark.

Some may believe 10% to be an unreasonable rate of return, but 10% is the average return over the entire history of the US stock market – a market that has weathered world war, depression, and hyperinflation. There is no reason to expect otherwise over a long-term 40-year period (for reference, the most recent 40-year period 1973-2013 yielded 11.43%). Although I may just be lucky, here are four examples of my own personal investments that have more than doubled the S&P-500 benchmark over the past five years (ticker SPY 5% over 5-years).

Some insight into how I chose these investments:

RSP Rydex Equal Weight S&P 500 (7% five-year return): the neglected issue with traditional S&P index funds is that large companies like Apple & Exxon take up 8% of the fund. With an equal 0.2% weight given to each of the 500 companies, you’ll get true diversification & outperformance.

HSCSX Homestead Small Company Stock (13%): I inherently favor small companies and this contrarian fund concentrates on out of favor firms ready to turn around.

FNMIX Fidelity New Markets Income (11% with a 4% yield): as international stocks often don’t outperform those from the USA, I focus my international exposure on high-yielding dollar-denominated emerging market bonds.

The single most important thing is to invest in yourself. Be financially literate and learn new skills such as the Excel modeling and asset allocation strategies detailed herein. Be the very best at whatever you do. Continuous education & aggressive professional diligence. (And by education, I don’t mean going $150,000 into debt for an art history degree. Let me be one of few to emphasize that the education industry is quickly turning into a fool’s scam and unless you’re attending a top-20 school, skip it – you’re better off working or going to a decent state subsidized college where you’ll get the same education at 1/4 the price.)

Now assuming you ain’t no scrub – you’re investing in yourself, saving 20% of your professional income, working hard, and learning to be an astute investor, I now revise my Excel and entitle it – “How to Make $20 Million Dollars”:

* Want an extra $5,000,000? Save 25% instead of 20%!

Finally, DON’T LOSE MONEY. Wealthy investors understand this concept better than most which is why you sometimes see sharp overcorrections in the market from options & algorithms that automatically trigger a “sell” – they would rather liquidate in advance of a truly scary situation than risk losing a large percentage of their capital:

1) Market crash & asset bubbles, roughly every 10 years: If an asset class inflated by credit does not generate enough cash to service the debt, divest. Even I had good enough sense to recognize the pig that was the housing bubble and liquidated every single stock investment a year before that crash. I constantly listen to CNBC and Bloomberg when driving (it annoys my girlfriend, she loves the Kesha).

2) Dumb ass investments – wanna build a restaurant to “entertain your friends?” Did you hide your money in Cyprus or some equally bad socialist European nation? As soon as you made some money, did you buy a yacht or Porsche to show others you’ve “made it?”

3) A bad marriage or catastrophic illness – divorce or bad partnerships will wipe out half your net worth. Doing such a thing twice will decimate even a $10 million fortune. Choose wisely, and stay healthy. Don’t race trains and avoid all AIDS situations.

I’m really tempted to model another Excel illustrating how riding market bubbles (bitcoin, anyone?), a fun night in Bangkok and a 50% shave from a bad divorce will affect your net worth. But in this scenario, AIDS will strike you down before I reach line 65… so my advice, which took me 90 minutes to formulate, would be wasted. Anyways, I hope I have been of assistance – thank you for listening and please comment!

I know this woman who runs an online business. I like her a lot — she has a great product, she’s been covered in some great press, and when I’ve met her, she’s really fun to hang out with.

But her business is struggling. She doesn’t charge enough and she doesn’t know how to grow her business. On two occasions, I’ve heard her mention cashflow problems.

Here’s the interesting part: Looking at her business, I know how she could easily quadruple it in 2 months. (I know because I did exactly the same thing with mine.) And I would love to help her, free, as a friend.

It would be presumptuous for me to call her and tell her what to do. But if she reached out, I would be HAPPY to help. In fact, I wish she would ask!

Why don’t we ask for help?

For a lot of us, we’re worried about “annoying” the busy person.

Sometimes, we hate feeling obligated.

But no matter what, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. The worst someone can say is “No.” But what if connecting to a busy person could give us ONE answer — just 1 — that could change the trajectory of our lives?

There is a better way.

To show you how, today I’ve invited my friend Selena Soo to share her strategies for connecting with busy VIPs. Sometimes, they might give you a 1-line email response. Other times, they’ll take you under their wing for life.

Selena has done a masterful job connecting with journalists, entrepreneurs, and authors. Not like a sleazy person handing out business cards at a bar, but in a totally authentic way. For example, when I wasn’t sure where to host an event in NYC, she knew the exact place to do it. When I needed to hire someone to help with a business challenge, she pointed me to the right person.

Today, she’ll show you how to connect with busy people and tap into their networks and expertise.

Take it away, Selena.

* * *

How do you get a CEO, TV producer, or potential mentor to write back to your email, and say yes to your request?

The most powerful people, who can open up doors for you, are also the busiest people. Before even having their morning coffee, they open their email to see dozens — if not hundreds — of requests that have already started pouring in.

Even if you don’t get 1,000 emails per day like Ramit, I imagine you’re also struggling with the flood of information and to-do’s that land in our inboxes daily. In fact, the average corporate employee receives and sends 105 emails per day.

Now what does this mean for you?

It’s harder to stand out and make an impression. It’s so easy for your message to get overlooked or ignored in all of the noise.

However, what if the simple act of sending one email could lead to a big job opportunity, a high-paying client, or an influential new friend? It could save you weeks, months, or years of knocking on doors (or just hoping and praying for a lucky break).

If you know how to get busy, powerful people to respond, you’ll have a HUGE competitive advantage over everyone else.

Unfortunately, most people go about emailing influential people all wrong. They end up ruining potential relationships before they’ve even started.

Today, I’m going to show you how to start a relationship with a specific type of influencer — VIP experts, bloggers, and authors — the right way: through generously adding value. And I’ll be breaking down real emails on the right and wrong way to do this.

REACHING OUT TO EXPERTS

These big experts often seem impenetrable. They have 10s, or even 100s, of thousands of people on their list. But the truth is that they DO want to get emails. They would LOVE to get hundreds of emails a day from their readers — if they were the RIGHT emails.

What if you could be that person that your favorite blogger, author, or expert loves hearing from? How can you get them to light up when they see your email in their inbox?

What is it that makes an expert respond or not respond to an email? How do you get this person to care about you? How do make sure you aren’t annoying them or taking up their valuable time, but rather giving them great value in your email?

I want you to know how to craft a message that will begin a relationship and leave a lasting impression.

Below, I’m sharing examples of three types of emails I received after I hosted a webinar that over 700 people signed up for. Let’s dissect what worked and didn’t work about them.

EMAIL 1: The Generic Email

On the surface, this seems like a good email. “J” is enthusiastic and complimentary. She also makes an offer to help.

But let me tell you what’s missing from this email.

This type of email doesn’t make much of an impression. It’s not memorable, because it’s generic and non-specific. Furthermore, while I would respond and say “thank you,” I would never take the person up on her offer to help.

Why?

I don’t who she is or what she does. I can’t figure out how she would help me.

Even if I did know what she does, how do I know she is actually good at it? And how do I know that I will like her work?

As a busy entrepreneur, I’m protective of my time. The entire process of reaching out to her, scheduling a time to get on the phone and explore this, and receiving her help could take several hours. This email gives me no way of knowing whether or not it would be worth it.

Another thing to keep in mind — if you are looking to develop a relationship with an expert, author, coach, or information product creator, they tend to have two primary goals — to generate leads or sales. The ways you can help them are fairly obvious.

So as Ramit often says, “Don’t make the busy person do the work.” Don’t ask the expert to spend time figuring out how you can help them. Instead, be the person who proactively comes up with valuable ways to help.

For example, if you can promote them (their website, blog, service, product, book, or events), offer a case study about the impact of their work, or refer customers to them, you’ll for sure stand out as someone valuable to them.

EMAIL 2: The 7-Paragraph Email

Have you ever gotten emails that are 1,000 words long?

I received a few of those after the webinar.

At first, I was excited to see that someone was so passionate about my content. I was committed to responding and writing back to everyone who took the time to email me.

However, these super long emails ended up feeling burdensome.

Why?

As a very busy entrepreneur (or just a very busy human!), reading a 7-paragraph email felt overwhelming. It took me a lot of time to read, digest, and respond to the many questions embedded within the email.

When someone writes you their life story in 7 paragraphs, you feel bad responding with two or three sentences. I had to spend more time than I normally would to craft a thoughtful, appropriate response.

The time of the experts you admire is valuable. Many of the experts I know charge between $100/hour to up to $3,000/hour. So while experts, bloggers, and authors enjoy hearing from their readers, be mindful of what you ask of them.

With that in mind, most long emails are not a form of giving (even though the email recipient may have put thought and care into writing the message). They are actually a form of taking.

When a well-meaning person emails you their life story, a laundry list of questions, or a request to jump on the phone with you, they are actually taking your most valuable asset — your time.

And the best way to build a relationship with an expert you admire is through giving generously and respecting the value of their time.

Recently I heard author Michael Ellsberg share in an interview that when someone becomes a sought-after expert, they are no longer able to help many people 1-on-1. That’s why they create a newsletter, write books, and give talks. They want to share their work with the masses. So when you are requesting 1-on-1 meetings to get extra advice, especially when you don’t have a strong relationship with them, you are likely disrespecting the way they want to help people.

EMAIL 3: The Email with a Specific Offer

I responded to this email right away, and I got on the phone with Pam the very next day.

Why?

She established credibility (she’d been mentored by famous executive coaches Marshall Goldsmith and Tom Peters, and had lectured at Dartmouth).

She had taken the time to listen to my live webinar and showed enthusiasm for what I taught.

She made a specific offer that was relevant to me, which I could simply say “yes” or “no” to.

Pam stood out from the hundreds of people listening to my webinar by leading with generosity, and she got my most precious resource: my time and attention.

When we spoke on the phone, she also invited me to do an interview for her radio show (which I said yes to), which will keep us in touch and further develop our relationship.

She did all of this in the spirit of giving, without asking me to do anything for her in return.

(Note: Pam’s name shared with permission.)

So how can YOU stand out to experts by being a GIVER?

Tim Ferriss and Ramit Sethi have become well-known experts and authors because they are regularly producing powerful, life-changing content. They are passionate about sharing their knowledge and want to know that it’s making an impact.

The way to start your relationship with these influencers is to consume their material and actively implement what they are teaching, and then let them know how it has helped you.

There are several ways for you to do that.

Here is a specific example. A real estate investor watched one of LinkedIn expert Lewis Howes’ interviews and then wrote him a personalized, thoughtful note.

His note is very specific. He tells Lewis that his interview was the best he’s ever seen (out of over 100). He followed up by buying his LinkedIn book, showing he wanted to learn even more from Lewis. And he wrote all of this in a personalized LinkedIn message to add Lewis to his network (a very fitting way to connect with a LinkedIn expert!).

The result? Andrew made an impression on Lewis, and Lewis ended up sharing his note on his Facebook page.

3 Ways to Get on the Radar Of A Busy, Influential Expert

Here are some more examples of how you can get the attention of your favorite expert, blogger, or author. Can you see yourself doing any of these things?

Attend a webinar and ask an insightful question. Afterwards, follow up. Come prepared to the webinar to take notes and ask a thoughtful question relating to the topic. Follow up with a thank you email to the expert for answering your question, and share how you’re going to implement that piece of advice. Then, after you implement it, follow up with another email sharing your results.

Write a testimonial or case study for their product or program. Have you bought an information product from any of your favorite experts? And did you complete it? If you say to them, “I bought your product and I finished it and I got XYZ results,” they’ll think: “Wow, this person is serious and committed.” So, complete the program. Then, offer to write a testimonial or case study.

This is valuable because in order for experts to sell their products, they need proof that it works. By doing that, you become an ambassador for their sales and promotions. With experts, that’s how they make money. When you help sell and promote their products, you stand out from the thousands of fans and become a valuable person in helping them grow their business.

Comment regularly on their blog. (Bonus: Share results you’ve gotten through using their material.) For example, at Ramit’s BehaviorCon event, marketing and lifestyle expert Marie Forleo shared with the audience that she’s proud of the passionate community she’s built online. The viewer comments for her MarieTV episodes are rich and intelligent, and people are supporting one another with the weekly community challenges. This is something that experts take great pride in.

Getting thoughtful blog comments makes these experts feel like their hard work is appreciated and making a difference. And when you comment regularly, you will be noticed. Some experts may have active readers, but very few consistent blog commenters. In that case, you’ll especially stand out by leaving comments, so take advantage of these opportunities.

The key is to be consistent about it, and to know that a relationship is built over time.

Here is an example of a blog comment that got marketing expert Derek Halpern’s attention:

As you can see, Derek cares about his readers and their results.

And when you come back to an expert’s blog to share the results you’ve gotten, you’ll distinguish yourself from everyone else.

Here’s another example of a comment that stood out. An IWT reader told Ramit that he’d had success with his famous Closing The Loop technique.

To sum it all up, here are 4 guidelines for your comments or emails to influencers:

Make it short, so it’s easy to digest.

Share something specific that you liked about their product/blog post, etc. (i.e., an entertaining story or a deceptively simple tactic they offered).

Share how you have taken action or will be taking action.

Express your gratitude.

Here is a challenge for you:

Write an email, or a comment on your favorite expert’s blog, using what you’ve learned today. And to practice, feel free to leave me a comment, as I would love to hear from you and connect with you!

That’s why getting customers to provide great reviews is important — but also problematic and rarely within your control.

Looking for a customer review strategy you can control? One way is to promote your business by reviewing and promoting other businesses.

Sound impossible? It’s not. Here are the basic steps:

Think relative. Sure, reviewing your favorite restaurant is fine, but if you develop software applications the relevance is less than obvious. Reviews should directly reflect on what you do as well. If you sell consumer products, reviewing a fulfillment center makes sense. Architects can naturally review CAD tools and construction companies. Just make sure the products or services you recommend reflect well on your business: A restaurant that provides a glowing review of an organic meat producer implicitly shows it cares about the dishes it serves.

Think location. It’s tempting to place reviews on a site that gets lots of traffic or to place a review for a business that gets lots of exposure. (After all, you do want you review to be noticed.) Lots of visibility is great, but visibility that creates poor associations does more harm than good. Always factor visibility against the reputation and quality of the association.

Be specific. Fluffy, hype-filled reviews make no impact. Say exactly why you were delighted. Be short and to the point. And as you do…

Make self references seamless. Here’s an example of a self-serving review: “Our own customers have come to expect outstanding service, amazing attention to detail, and world-class implementation… and that’s exactly what Acme Products provided us.” Ugh. Take off your Captain Obvious costume. If a supplier came through in a pinch, just say, “Acme Products made six separate deliveries in three days and met a complex just-in-time manufacturing plan.” Specific, to the point, and readers can tell your business does complicated stuff. You don’t have to say it.

Don’t go crazy. Pick your spots. Don’t play the “saturate blog comment sections with links to my website” game simply to create inbound links. Never provide a review unless you truly believe what you say; only then think of ways the review can reflect well on your business, too. Your primary agenda is to give credit where credit is due. Then consider going one step farther…

Ask how you can help. Make a call. Say, “We really like what you did… if we can ever help by providing testimonials or references, all you have to do is ask…” Not only will you build a stronger professional relationship with another business, but you may find yourself in front of potential customers you would otherwise never have met.

But we still click the thumbnails. It’s almost like we can’t help ourselves.

Here are five ways to use Yahoo! headline strategies — and what they say about us as consumers of information and of products and services — to improve your website and better engage your customers:

Strategy #1: We don’t want more information; we need an anchor. Take weight loss: Thousands of books, thousands of programs, and millions of web pages are devoted to losing weight. People searching for a way to lose weight can access too much information. Weight loss seems so complicated and overwhelming so we’re almost compelled to click “The real reason for weight gain” because, darn it, we just want to knowwhat to do.

Sometimes more information makes us understand less. Simple, clear-cut, and straightforward is incredibly attractive. Solve my problem — the quicker the better. Explain the benefits — the quicker the better. Determine what is important to me as a customer, especially where buying decisions are concerned, and give me that. Don’t make me sift or I’ll leave.

Strategy #2: We love inside knowledge. Hoping for a peek behind the curtain is a universal desire; who doesn’t want the inside scoop? (I clicked the “housekeeper secrets” article even though no one cleans our house but us.)

This strategy is complementary rather than contradictory to Strategy #1: First give customers an anchor, then, provide deeper, more detailed information for those interested. (Without an anchor no one tries to learn more anyway.) Just make sure you go past specs and fact sheets. Show creative ways to use a product or service. Share tips. Help customers benefit from your experience and knowledge. Engage with an anchor and then provide inside knowledge customers can’t find elsewhere.

Strategy #3: Even though we won’t admit it, we actually like a little hype. Infomercial words like shocking, miracle, surprising, incredible, wild, amazing, and unbelievable are also popular on the carousel. And why not? I like an amazingly wild surprise from an unbelievably shocking miracle as much as the next guy.

Hype can definitely be overused, but strong adjectives and definitive statements also show you believe in your services. While you don’t have to channel your inner Billy Mays, be proud of what you do — and say so. No one else will.

Strategy #4: We respond to fear. Everyone wants to avoid a disaster. Most of us fall in the middle class, either statistically or by aspiration, and most of us have jobs… and those jobs kinds of jobs are going away? Gotta check that one out. “Dangers of debit cards”… everyone has a debit card and worries about money. Probably should check that out too. After all, what I don’t know can hurt me.

While you shouldn’t try to manufacture fear, you should consider the common concerns of your customers and address them. Don’t try to just scare me: Identify a fear or concern and show me how you can provide a real solution.

Don’t assume your site must maintain a laser-like focus. Share the unusual or offbeat. If a customer finds a cool way to use your product, share it. If you have a great story about a client, share it. Don’t be afraid to let a little personality show through. (But at the same time never be self-indulgent. If you’re sharing only for an ego boost, don’t.) Customers buy from people, not from companies, so share a few real examples of what makes you and your business unique.

Hi there! My name is Syafik and I am normal 28 year old guy who aspires to be an enlightened billionaire. By 2020, I will be 38. Welcome to my blog target: billionaire by 2020. That is my goal indefinitely! Hence all the info, resources, articles et cetera I have ... Continue reading →